Cells Get Audio Savvy
Mobile phones are getting more and more entertainment-focused. Are consumers ready?Cathy Lu, special to PC World
Cathy Lu is a freelance writer and editor.
Apple's IPod and Motorola's Razr V3: two of the sexiest gadgets in the world. While Apple has revolutionized the world of MP3 players, Motorola defined "cool" with its superthin cell phone hit of last year. Surely a collaboration between the two couldn't go wrong.
Or could it?
Unfortunately, the eagerly awaited "ITunes phone"--a combination mobile phone and MP3 player--looks anything but sexy. First off, there's nothing remotely stunning or sexy about the phone, officially named the Rokr E1. It features little in the way of hardware appeal, the trademark of any Apple (and of late, Motorola) product.
But go beyond the stodgy looks and you'll find even more to sneer at. First, there's the 100-song limit when using Apple's ITunes software. So even if 100 songs uses up just 350MB of space on the TransFlash card that comes with the Rokr, you're stuck. As the Soup Nazi would say, "No tunes for you."
Another peeve: You can't set any of your MP3s as ring tones. Plus, transfer rates are miserably slow; to move a little less than 70MB of song files, it took me almost 9 minutes. That's longer than the full version of Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" (at 8 minutes, 29 seconds). It's hard to say which one is the greater torture.
What is cool, though, is the phone's integration with your PC's version of ITunes. Plug the Rokr into your USB port, and it automatically appears in ITunes. Just drag and drop playlists or songs to the phone, or choose to autofill the phone with random tunes, a la the IPod Shuffle. Once you're done transferring songs, go back to the Rokr, press the ITunes button on the front of the phone, and you're taken to the ITunes app, where you'll find a menu system much like an IPod's. You can select what you want to listen to by playlist, album, or artist. If, while rockin' out, you need to phone home, the music automatically stops so Green Day doesn't drown out your mom.
The Rokr may be the most talked about musical phone in town, but it's not the only one. Sony Ericsson's new W800i also plays tunes on your talker. It comes with stereo headphones, a 512MB Memory Stick Duo Pro card, and software for ripping your CDs to MP3s. It also includes a 2-megapixel camera that takes much higher-quality pictures than the Rokr's VGA-resolution cam.
For another take on these gadgets, read Grace Aquino's "The Music Phones: Rokr vs. Walkman."
What People Want
Cell-phone makers are pushing the marriage of music and phone. But will consumers go for it?
Dale Gilliam, director of primary research for market research firm The Diffusion Group, feels that Apple and Motorola missed the market by not creating a more IPod-like phone. "Who are you really trying to target?" says Gilliam. "Presumably it's the younger generation. But let's assume those who are interested in the Rokr already have an IPod. Why do they want a music phone?"
"Personally, my lifestyle doesn't really require an MP3 cell phone," says IPod user Helmut Kobler. "I have an IPod for my car and for running, and all my tracks on my laptop for working."
Another problem is the 100-song limit, which restricts the phone's usefulness as an MP3 player. According to a recent report by The Diffusion Group, consumers would prefer the ability to store at least 250 songs. But despite reservations about the Rokr, the firm's research also shows that there is still a healthy subset of cell-phone users who are attracted to the idea of rockin' out on their handsets. According to Gilliam, approximately 30 percent of cell-phone owners surveyed were interested in a phone that had a music player.
Multimedia Dreamin'
Music isn't the only stimulus that companies are adding to cell phones. With the deployment of EVDO (a high-speed data network), cell phones are quickly becoming capable of displaying streaming video.
For instance, through Verizon's Vcast service ($15 a month), you can download exclusive video clips from shows like "RockStar: INXS"--you know, if you're into that. Of course, there's more-educational fare, including content from AccuWeather, CNN, ESPN, NBC News, and VH1.
Sprint has a similar service, Sprint TV ($20 per month), which includes content from ABC, CNN, the Discovery Channel, and Fox Sports.
While research indicates that video capabilities aren't as intriguing to cell-phone users as music is--according to Gilliam, only 20 percent were piqued by the idea of video--that number may be deceiving.
"Most people assume video content would be entertainment-oriented, so many consumers aren't interested," says Gilliam. "But if you bring up the possibility that you can catch up on news when you have several minutes, people find that appealing."
In fact, when asked whether they'd want to watch a certain type of content on their phones, rather than if they just wanted video capabilities, 30 percent said they'd be interested in news, 24 percent in movies, 20 percent in comedy, and 19 percent in sports.
That makes sense to me. Ask me if I'd want to watch video on my cell phone, and I'd probably say no. But ask me if I'd want the ability to watch a quick 3-minute recap of the top news stories, and I'd likely say yes. Hey, it's better than trying to read a CNN.com page on my phone. The same goes for music: I don't necessarily want to listen to music on my cell phone, but I admit that the thought of cranking up some MP3s while sitting at a cafe--without needing to drag along my IPod or my laptop--is appealing.
Now let's see if that's enough to make consumers buy into this new breed of phone.